Second Life - All About Animations

There are three major categories when it comes to animation in Second Life.

Dancers showing off their skills.  Since this was for a photo, I used Static animations, or poses.  If this were a live event, you would use a sit animation from a Dance Ball or HUD. If you just wanted to boot scoot all the time, everywhere you went, instead of walking, you would drop an animation into an AO (animation override).

Animation Override, or AO. 

All Second Life system bodies have built in animations for movement. These include walking, running, jumping, flying, swimming, sitting, falling, etc. They're kind of old, and don't work very well with mesh bodies, so most people wear an AO (a HUD) to customize their movements. These animations get dropped into an object that you then wear. Mesh heads may also have custom AOs for facial expressions.

See my follow-up post on AOs for more details!

Sit Animations

Next most common are what I am calling Sit animations, because you have to 'sit' on an object in order to use them.  They are placed inside furniture and objects that you interact with, so when you select sit on a chair, for example, your body will be positioned and controlled by the animations within the chair.  It doesn't have to be furniture. You can 'sit' on a dance ball and start dancing, climb a ladder, drive a car, interact with other characters, and more.  They generally run on a loop of premade movements.

Read more about sit animations and how to customize your furniture in this follow-up post!

Static Animations

These are poses that don't move, mainly used for photography. They are also placed inside objects and furniture, or you can operate them directly from your inventory.

Read more in my follow-up post on static poses!